Magnitude-4.1 quake shakes SC, Georgia

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A small earthquake shook South Carolina and Georgia late Friday, shaking homes and rattling residents as far as 60 miles away.

The quake happened at 10:23 p.m. EST and had a preliminary magnitude of 4.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's website. It was centered 7 miles west of the town of Edgefield, S.C.

"It's a large quake for that area," said USGS geophysicist Dale Grant. "It was felt all over the place."

Authorities across South Carolina said their 911 centers were inundated with calls of people reporting explosions or plane crashes as the quake's low rumble spread across the state.

Reports surfaced on Twitter of a leaking water tower in Augusta, Ga., following the quake, but the tower was damaged by ice from a winter storm earlier this week and not the quake, said Richmond County Sheriff's Lt. Tangela McCorkle.

No damages or injuries from the quake itself had been reported, said South Carolina Emergency Management Division spokesman Derrec Becker.

Tom Clements, of Earlwood, S.C., located outside Columbia about 60 miles east of the quake's epicenter, said he felt the walls of his brick house shaking "and they were definitely shaking like what I've experienced before in Latin America" during an earthquake.

Clements said he immediately went outside to see if anyone else had felt it and he found two neighbors who had.

"One thought a tree had fallen" because of the ice a severe winter storm dumped on the region earlier this week, he said.